Syria and France have agreed to form a joint committee to oversee development projects in Syria paid for with assets confiscated in France from Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of ousted president Bashar al-Assad. Syria's state news agency SANA reported the agreement after talks in Paris on Saturday.

Qutaiba Qadish, director of international cooperation at Syria's Foreign Ministry, and Jean-François Guillaume, France's special envoy for Syria, agreed to set up a "joint governance committee" for the projects and to exchange project proposals next week, according to The Insight International, reporting SANA.

The two officials also discussed completing the procedures needed to speed up the allocation of about 54 million euros to development projects in Syria. SANA did not say which projects were being considered.

The money comes from property confiscated from Rifaat al-Assad after French courts found he had built up a fortune from embezzled Syrian state funds. A Paris appeals court upheld the confiscation in September 2021, after he was convicted of money laundering, misappropriation of public funds and tax fraud. His French assets were valued at around 90 million euros.

The restitution follows a declaration of intent signed in July, when French President Emmanuel Macron visited Damascus and announced that France would return more than 50 million euros to fund development projects for the Syrian people. The July package included a 32 million euro project, called Al-Fajr, to support private businesses, start-ups and microfinance. Rifaat al-Assad, who fled Syria in 1984 after a failed coup attempt against his brother Hafez, died in Dubai in January 2026 aged 88.